


Leap of Faith

by Mischief_With_Sandra



Category: Original Work
Genre: Drama, Eventual Romance, F/M, Romance, Suspense, crazy idiots in love but neither have a clue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 14:33:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30023220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mischief_With_Sandra/pseuds/Mischief_With_Sandra
Summary: A genius hacker and a grumpy police detective working together? What could possibly go wrong? Everything.
Kudos: 1





	Leap of Faith

**OOOOO**

Lara was not having a good day, and the beginning of the week had held such promise. It had started out great, fantastic even, but at this immediate point in time, not so much greatness happening anymore. If she had any spare time to ponder her current emotional state, she would have categorized herself borderline panicking, but there was simply no time.

There were precisely two doors of entry and exit inside the server room she was in, and both of them required a key card and access code. Unfortunately, there had been a brief power surge and because of the specific nature of the room and information it housed; there’s a mandatory three minute reset to reinstate the security measures and remove the lock-down that’s been placed. Normally, this would be considered a non-issue, but the constant intermittent sound of a back-up battery dying was a very real reminder that Lara had found herself in a dire situation.

Between the emergency lights and glass windows lining an outer wall, Lara could still see clearly all around her. She rushed towards the main security panel and tried an array of over-ride codes, one last ditch effort to bypass the lock-down. No response; only a series of angry beeps and an ‘err’ display. She pinched her nose and inhaled a deep breath trying to calm her nerves. Generally, she had nerves of steel, but this was testing her limits. She twisted around from her position to glance at her laptop and saw the screen was still downloading and transmitting the files she needed. Thank goodness for the back-up generators tied directly to these servers in such an instance, she needed those files – but she really needed to get out of the room, _now_.

Lara ran a hand through her dark brown hair and made her way around the room; feeling along the walls for any other hidden panels that could aid her in escaping this room. Frustrated when she found nothing, she slammed her hands against the wall adjacent to the windows and tried to hold it together. _Think, Lara, think_ , she thought to herself. Her ear piece crackled and interrupted any further musings.

“Lara? Lara, can you hear me?” A familiar male voice traveled down the line.

Surprised at the open line, she whirled around, eyes wide. Her hand covered her ear in attempt to drown out some of the background noise, “Yes! Weber, is that you? “She shouted, grateful, for once, to be wearing the police issued communication device.

“Listen Lara, whatever you do, don’t download anything from the server room, it’s a trap, there’s a virus that –“

She cut off his remarks and rolled her eyes, “That starts to erase the files from the accessed program and sends the system into complete shutdown. I know, I know, I caught the virus in time from dumping the files and creating the shutdown, but someone created a _secondary plan_ with the possibility the virus would fail. I’m currently trying to work through that…” Lara trailed off, flipping her wrist over to look at the time on her watch.

She blew out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. _90 seconds left._ The sudden ping of the file download caused her head to snap up. She skidded over to the laptop and removed the USB drive from the port before throwing it on the chain around her neck and stuffing inside her shirt. She mentally ran down her list of ever evaporating options. Muttering to herself, Lara completely forgot about Jason on the other end of the com line until there was shouting in her ear, disrupting her train of thought.

“What do you mean there was a back-up? HELLO? Lara? What is going on? Talk to me,” her partner yelled. She could hear the underlying tone of concern in his voice.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Lara conveyed. She continued speaking while packing up her gear at a rapid fire pace, “There’s a problem.”

“You mean with the shutdown protocol? I thought you said the system would reset after a certain amount of time?”

As Weber spoke, Lara darted around to the back where the server cables and back-up batteries were located. She knelt down the peer at the device in question, the focal point of the high-pitched beeping. She paused before responding, “Okay, scratch that, I should have said we have _two_ problems.”

“What do you mean?” Weber questioned.

“You know that secondary back-up plan I glossed over?” She replied airily.

“Yeah….,” he trailed off.

She tried to analyze the modified battery pack connected into the server hard lines. Lara’s voice got higher and higher with each passing word through her lips, “Well, that plan happens to take shape in the form of a bomb.”

“A WHAT?” She could almost feel Jason’s shocked remarks over the line. “Lara, you have got to get out of there. I’ll coming down with a team right now. How much time?”

“Not enough,” she whispered.

“I’m already on my way. Now tell me, how much time?” He gritted out. There was a loud commotion on the other end of their connection; lots of shouting and doors slamming. 

“Jason, no! Do not come down here. There’s nothing you can do and there’s enough explosive to take out this building but blow the next block to smithereens. So stop!” She pleaded with him. Lara swallowed heavily getting up and pacing back and forth. She was many things, but a bomb expert, she was not. For all the knowledge that was rattling around in her brain, she didn’t know how to diffuse a bomb without considering all the variables and certainly not under a minute’s time. She rubbed a hand across her face before continuing, “Listen, the files should have transmitted to headquarters and I had a copy made just in case.”

“Hart. Don’t you dare give up on me. You are a genius, and you can do this. You’ll find a way. You always do. Please, please don’t….” Weber replied unable to finish his sentence. There was emotion in his voice that was out of character from her grumpy partner.

Lara leaned against the window, eyes closed, not knowing how to answer him. She didn’t want to provide him false hope. Her brain kept running through possible options, but there seemed to simply be none. Even with her high degree of intelligence, there was just about zero possibility of survival. With 30 seconds left, there still wasn’t a viable option. The lock-down would lift 20 seconds too late, and she’s pretty sure there’s no safe hiding spaces from the explosion that’s about to occur. She tried to hold back the tears accumulating behind her eyes. Well, she supposed there was only one thing left to do.

She gathered up her courage and spoke into the active ear piece, “Jason. There’s something I need to tell you.”

“No. Whatever it is, save it until we see each other on the ground floor.”

She rolled her eyes internally. Of course, he would say something like that. Typical. Lara was unable to hold the watery laugh that spilled out of her. She opened her eyes to look at the view below in her final moments, “You’re such an asshole.”

“Have you found that way out yet? Tried the doors again? Is there a roof hatch exit? We could try to fly you off the building?” he parroted out, still firing off more unanswered questions. The echo of wind was whipping through her com as he spoke. His attempt at desperate humor was failing as she could hear him actually panicking. Her cool and collected partner losing it, will wonders never cease? As Lara was listening, she was scanning the outside of the building seven stories below when something caught her attention. In the midst of his ramble, an idea sparked and gave her new hope.

“Weber. You _are_ an actual genius!” Lara took in all the angles of the ground floor below. There. She didn’t imagine it. A pool. The fancy company building she was in actually had a pool on the premises. It was a long shot, but it was better than nothing at all.

She spun around wildly looking for anything to break the window pane, and found a chair in the far corner of the room. Lara ran for the chair, and once she was close enough, rolled it towards the window with as much force as she could muster.

The office chair slammed into the window leaving it splintered and broken. The chair toppled over the edge and left just enough space open for someone to jump through. She could hear her partner shouting in her ear desperately, but she didn’t have any time left for last minute confessions or goodbyes. And she was terrible at goodbyes.

She backed up to the middle of the room to get enough of a running start. As she sprinted towards the window, Lara heard one final flat-line of the bomb informing her time was up. Just as she was about to leap off the ledge, she heard a thunderous boom, and then everything went black.

**OOOOO**


End file.
